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Wenger hails Arsenal's progress

Author: Sir David Smith
Date: 11/03/2010
Football betting

Arsene Wenger believes Tuesday's 5-0 Champions League last 16 rout of Portuguese side FC Porto has gone some way to silencing critics of his Arsenal side.

A hat-trick from Nicklas Bendtner plus goals from Samir Nasri and Emmanuel Eboue sent the north London club through to the quarter-finals via a 6-2 aggregate scoreline.

"At the beginning of the season, nobody expected this team to be where we are, but we showed we have mental strength, we have good desire and good quality," declared the Frenchman, whose side are now fifth favourites with the sportsbooks to win the Champions League outright.

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Meanwhile, AC Milan coach Leonardo has backed David Beckham to cope with his 'special' return to Manchester United.

Beckham will line up against the club he supported as a boy and spent the first 10 years of his career in Wednesday's second leg of a Champions League's last 16 tie.

He started the first leg in Italy which United won 3-2 three weeks ago but Leonardo would not be drawn on reports that Beckham will be on the bench on Wednesday night.

The Football Association will not take action against Steven Gerrard following his alleged hand gesture towards referee Andre Marriner.

The Liverpool captain had found himself in the media spotlight after appearing to flash a V-sign when he was booked by Marriner during his side's 1-0 defeat at Wigan Athletic at Monday.

Speaking in the build-up to Thursday's Europa League last 16 clash with Lille, Reds boss Rafael Benitez was keen to play down the incident.

Now the FA has confirmed that they have no plans to take any further action.

Conference National side Chester City have been wound up following a brief hearing at the High Court on Wednesday.

The future of the 125-year-old club was resolved at a hearing in London which lasted for less than a minute.

In cricket, England's bowling troubles have taken a further turn for the worse after Durham seamer Graham Onions was ruled out of the first Test against Bangladesh that begins in Chittagong on Friday.

He has failed to shake off an ongoing back problem and 20-year-old Steven Finn could make his debut against the Test minnows.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board have handed former national team captains Mohammad Yousuf and Younus Khan indefinite bans following their behaviour on the recent tour of Australia.

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Shoaib Malik face one-year suspensions and Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal have been landed with hefty fines and placed under a monitored six-month probationary period for falling foul of their chiefs' expectancies.

On Wednesday, the PCB looked into Pakistan's dismal performances in Australia and with the recommended action taken, they must try to retain their ICC World Twenty20 crown in Caribbean next month without many of their big name stars.

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